Training for Sustainability

Hmong Producers Implement Conservation Efforts

Todd Neeley
By  Todd Neeley , DTN Staff Reporter
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Farmers in the Hmong American Farmers Association use a variety of conservation measures designed to improve soil health on a 155-acre vegetable and flower farm just 15 miles southeast of Bloomington, Minnesota. (DTN photo by Todd Neeley)

VERMILLION, Minnesota (DTN) -- Years of traditional row-crop farming have taken their toll on 155 acres now operated by the Hmong American Farmers Association in southeast Minnesota.

What may have been productive corn and soybean land for decades is undergoing a transformation.

One year after leasing the land from a buyer, the association is creating a real-life laboratory for Hmong farmers -- producers who immigrated to the United States following the Vietnam War.

The farm southeast of Bloomington, Minnesota, in Vermillion, which was one of five stops on the Conservation Technology Information Center tour Aug. 12, is designed to teach the Hmong how to farm sustainably.

Much of the ground is as hard as a rock.

"This land was in conventional farming," said Janssen Hang, senior organizer of the HAFA.

"Prior to us -- we went through tests on compaction. It had been depleted of minerals. It had heavy compaction. We used 40 tons of compost and cover crops (to begin restoring the soil.) We started asking, how do we become a sustainable farm? The answer is through cover crops. Practices are part of our training program."

Now, some 20 vegetable and flower farmers who work at the farm plant oats, buckwheat and other cover crops in the summer. Last year the farm planted a mix of six to eight cover crops, expanding to between 10 and 12 acres this year.

These days a number of growers who are a part of the cooperative often walk the fields scanning for compacted ground. It's not uncommon to find three to four acres at a time where compaction is the likely culprit for soil under-productivity.

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In many of those areas farmers expect to deep-rip and follow up with cover crops to begin to create a healthy soil.

Since the soil quality and type varies from field to field, Janssen Hang said it is a challenge for association farmers to find the right crops to fit the soil.

Hmong farmers are using a variety of conservation practices. The HAFA farm is taking part in a multi-year study on cover crops. Farmers in the association rent 5- to 10-acre plots and take part in inter-cropping by planting rows of different vegetables and flowers side by side.

POLLINATOR HABITAT

During the past year the HAFA farm has taken five acres out of crop production to create a bee habitat. Included in the five acres are about three acres of mixed native plants to promote pollination and drive away "bad" bugs.

Yao Yang, an organizer with HAFA, said the farm recently installed two bee hives and next year plans to train farmers on how to keep bees.

Marla Spivak, assistant professor at the University of Minnesota bee laboratory, said Hmong farmers are working to strike a balance between using needed pesticides and protecting pollinators.

"But as we're learning more and more we understand putting habitat for bees is the best way to help them," she said.

"Nutrition is at the core of all of their problems. With good nutrition they can detoxify pesticides. They can get overwhelmed by insecticides in particular. My mission in our ecosystem is how can we have our pollinators and use pesticides judiciously."

ACCESSING MARKETS

Pakou Hang, founder and executive director of the HAFA, said the new incubator farm is training farmers about the whole value chain -- helping provide all the tools to successfully move their crops from the field to consumers. "Because the food is produced for vulnerable people we have to keep it safe," she said. "We want to foster self-sufficiency. To be part of the farm they have to have a market already. We want you to diversify income.

"We want our people to be prudent. They shouldn't grow it if there isn't a market for it. We want people to be educated when they make those kinds of decisions."

Association farmers sell to hospitals, schools, food processors, distributors, grocery stores and directly to consumers. In order for farmers to access the markets through HAFA, they are required to be reliable sources of the commodities sold, Pakou Hang said.

Farm families sell their produce to the association as part of a food hub, she said, feeding some 300,000 people through the contracts. The association helps farmers by cost-sharing equipment and soil enhancements.

"It is one way you get access to programs or services without having resources," Pakou Hang said.

Todd Neeley can be reached at todd.neeley@dtn.com

Follow him on Twitter @toddneeleyDTN

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Todd Neeley

Todd Neeley
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